Subaru Canada surges as Canada s auto market hits the brakes

Subaru Canada surges as Canada’s auto market hits the brakes

Canadian auto sales are slowing down, but Subaru resumes to report record Canadian sales

It couldn`t go on forever.

Canadian auto sales volume reached record highs in 2013, again in 2014, and yet again in 2015. Through the first-half of 2016, the Canadian auto industry was ahead of last year`s record rhythm by six percent, a striking achievement for an automotive market that had improved its monthly sales tallies, year-over-year, in thirty eight of thirty nine months through June.

Similarly, Subaru Canada reported all-time annual sales records in 2012, 2013, 2014, and again in 2015. Then, through the very first six months of 2016, a boom period for the Canadian auto industry, Subaru volume was up two percent despite brief supply at dealers across the country.

But in July, Canadian auto sales growth eventually stalled. Over the last four months, fresh vehicle sales in Canada have fallen three percent compared with the same period in record-setting 2015.

Don`t doubt the continued strength of the market, still prodded along by low interest rates and pricing that doesn`t always reflect currency switches. Canadians are, in fact, buying and leasing slew of fresh vehicles. But the growth pattern has been suspended across the industry, with 17,000 fewer total sales in the July-October period of two thousand sixteen than in the same time span in 2015.

The growth pattern was not, however, suspended in Subaru showrooms. Compared with the results of Subaru`s stable growth in the summer and fall of 2015, Canadian sales since July of this year have risen thirteen percent, an extra Two,133 sales for Subaru Canada over a four-month period.

October`s results were particularly striking, as Subaru for the very first time ever produced more than three percent market share. From Two.Five percent of the Canadian auto market in October two thousand fifteen and Two.7 percent in September 2016, Subaru Canada earned Three.1 percent of the market in October 2016, very almost catching Volkswagen and landing only seven hundred thirty eight sales behind Dodge.

To what does Subaru owe its success? While overall Canadian auto sales have declined of late, sales of SUV s/crossovers proceed to rise. And it is in this sector that Subaru produces the tremendous majority of the automaker`s sales. The Crosstrek, Forester, and Outback — a batch of vehicles which truly do cross over from one category to another — combine for almost seven out of every ten Subaru sales in Canada.

Collectively, the volume accumulated by Subaru`s high-riding trio hopped fourteen percent in October even as Canadian auto sales slipped five percent.

For the Crosstrek, October`s 1,070-unit sales result was its highest monthly total ever. Both the Forester and Outback are on track for their best years ever. The Crosstrek will make two thousand sixteen its best year ever midway through November.

Meantime, all of this crossover momentum comes as Subaru`s top-selling car, the Impreza, reaches the end of its fourth iteration. The fresh Impreza will be the very first Subaru built on the company`s brand-new Global Platform, the foundation of all next-generation Subarus, Julie Lychak, Subaru Canada spokesperson tells Autofocus. The dawn of a fresh Impreza also amplifies Subaru`s stir to improve capacity.

Yet in the present, Subaru`s success has not only occurred with an aging compact car, it has also materialized without any three-row vehicle in the lineup. (The replacement for the Tribeca, dead for four years, isn`t due until the two thousand nineteen model year.) Still, Subaru`s petite lineup emerges to be no deterrent to success.

A degree of economic caution introduced Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, and Mazda with fewer buyers this October than last. But more buyers than ever are injecting Subaru`s Canadian showrooms.

And they`re doing so across Canada. &#8220;Year-to-date,&#8221; Subaru`s Lychak says, &#8220;the Atlantic region is up eight percent, Ontario is up eleven percent, Quebec is up Three.Four percent, and the western region is up four percent.&#8221;